Joy School 2026

Ten Weeks of Practicing Joy

Joy isn’t reserved for a lucky few. It’s accessible, it’s a practice, it’s a radical act. It’s a way of transforming not only your own life but the lives of everyone you encounter. Joy is essential in creating the changes we want to see in ourselves and in our world, and we’ve learned powerful, research-backed methods for its cultivation that we’re excited to share.

You are invited to 10 weeks of experiential joy-learning, community connection, and personal exploration. Carve out this space for your voice, your body, your wildness, your creativity, and, above all, your joy. Open yourself to a new way of being!

This training is designed to give you…

  • Instruction, practice, and skills development in four pillars of joy: Mindful Awareness, Community Connection, Awe, and Self Leadership (for more information on the concept of Self, check out this blog post.)

  • Concrete tools to support you in…

    • Accessing present moment awareness

    • Connecting with and honoring your body

    • Exploring and attuning to your internal landscape

    • Increasing your access to Self energy

    • Noticing and fostering connection with your external landscape / the natural world

    • Courageously sharing and connecting with others

    • Softening self-consciousness

    • Understanding, regulating, and nurturing your nervous system

    • Showing up authentically

    • Allowing, inviting, and prioritizing laughter and play

  • Moments of awe and surprise over the power of the insights you hold

  • Recognition of how creative, curious, and playful you already are

  • The opportunity to connect authentically with other like-minded individuals.

What to Expect

This is intimate, joy-filled immersion, packed with outdoor exploration, collaborative play, deep connection with the natural world, artful meal-making, creative writing and journalling, guided meditation, yoga, solo reflection and wildcrafting, deep discussion, and courageous sharing.

This course is capped at 12 participants to foster genuine connectivity and belonging. Each session offers a balance of community connection and internal exploration so that you can leave the experience with charged batteries and a nourished spirit.

The Details

When:

Where: 239 South French Broad Avenue will be our primary meeting spot, though some weeks our sessions will take place outside (exact locations and directions will be provided to registered participants)

Who: Adults ages 18 and up who are ready to embrace a daily practice of joy and commit to the 10-week program. Capped at 12 participants, 8 participants required for group to run. Application and exploration call required for admission.

Cost:

Standard: $85 per session (paid weekly), or $800 for all 10 sessions paid upfront. This represents the true cost of the course.

Supportive: $100 per session (paid weekly), or $950 upfront. For those with financial abundance they’re excited to share. By selecting this tier, you pay it forward and build longterm accessibility into the Joy School program.

Supported: $30 per session (paid weekly) or $250 upfront. For a community member facing financial insecurity or hardship.

Investment Includes

  • Small-group instruction and skill-development in four pillars of joy: Mindful Awareness, Community Connection, Awe, and Self Leadership

  • Stress-release & relaxation yoga flows and techniques training

  • Therapeutic journaling instruction and practice

  • Wildness poetic medicine prompts and circle

  • Joy-awakening yoga flows and techniques training

  • Walking, breathing, and visualization-based guided meditations

  • Facilitated group discussions and sharing circles

  • Abundant laughter

  • Unlimited access to your treasure trove of joy!

How to Register:

Email Ellen at ellen@openinghandstherapy.com. Include your name, age, phone number, and a few details about your interest in the Retreat.

  1. Ellen will email you back to set up a 10-15 minute phone-call to ensure that the retreat seems like a good fit for your needs at this time and to answer any questions.

  2. Complete the intake paperwork. Be on the look-out for an email from Opening Hands Therapy, PLLC at <yourprovider@simplepractice.com>. Once you receive it, follow the link to a secure, HIPAA-compliant online portal, where you will be able to complete registration and payment.

  3. Invite curiosity and intention. In the days and weeks leading up to the course, spend some time with your Self and consider what you hope to learn and how you hope to shift in your daily practices and routines. On day one, we’ll use these thoughts to build clear intentions for our time together.

About Your Facilitator

Ellen Louise Ray, LCSW, LCAS, MFA, RYT-200

Ellen is a psychotherapist, addiction specialist, registered yoga teacher, and creative writer who helps her clients rediscover their capacity for inspiration, growth, and play so they can build lives where they feel strong, whole, and free. While Ellen has training in a number of healing modalities, Internal Family Systems (IFS) is at the heart of her work and informs her understanding of humans as powerfully complex creatures with an undamaged core Self capable of extraordinary compassion, creativity, curiosity, and joy. Ellen brings deep experience facilitating therapeutic creative writing circles, ecotherapy experiences, and yoga and meditation classes. She is thrilled to be sharing insights and practices based on years of study on the healing impacts of creative writing, collaborative play, mindful movement, connection with nature, meditation, breathwork, and internal exploration.